Nashville Ledger: Can This Car Save GM?

The press continues to be overwhelmingly positive for the seventh-generation Corvette, including a story this week in the Nashville Ledger.

“It looks part Ferrari, part Batmobile. But can this superhero save GM?” the story opens, with a front-page photo showing the menacing looking rear of the C7 beneath a headline, “Can this car save GM?”

While we think a company that has posted billions in profits since the dark days of bankruptcy less than four years ago is already well on its way to being saved, there is no doubt that the 2014 Corvette Stingray could go a long way toward showing the world that GM has made great strides since its cookie-cutter days of the 1970s and ’80s. Can you say Cimarron?

The Ledger quotes The New York Times, which recently editorialized that “The ‘Vette, that most aspirational dream car for heartland buyers, may be a bellwether for America’s recovering car industry and economy: when middle-class strivers feel flush enough to splurge on Corvettes again, the good times may be about to roll.”

If that is indeed to be the case, then Chevy must entice more young buyers to the showroom to replace the current market share that is growing grayer every day.

Lipscomb University business professor Andy Borchers, a graduate of General Motors Institute, tells The Ledger that’ll be an uphill battle.

“A lot of young people these days look at environmental sustainability. Some are living without cars and using public transit,” Borchers says. “It’s a different era. Being Grandpa’s performance vehicle is very much the concern. They would obviously like to have a younger customer base. This car is not going to do that unless they can reimage that.”

Assembly Plant Manager Dave Tatman believes the car has the makings of a huge hit.

“I anticipate that we’re gonna hit the ground running pretty hard, for sure,” he says. “There’s an excitement for the Corvette Stingray that we haven’t seen.”

At least one major newspaper agrees, according to The Ledger story.

“This autumn, the Corvette ditches its mullet, aviator glasses, and Thursday night bowling league image forever,” the New York Daily News recently wrote. “It’s all grown up now.”

Mitch Talley has loved Corvettes since he was just 8 years old. He's owned 10 Corvettes since 1983, including examples from the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth generations. His goal is to own first, second, and seventh generation cars someday. He and his son, Chris, also a Corvette enthusiast, served as Captains of the 2014 Georgia Corvette Caravan.